Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Daily Conspiracy: Group Think

"The conscious and intelligent maniplulation of organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power in our country... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of... We are dominated by a relatively small number of persons... It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind and who harness social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world." Edward Bernays

"The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. the whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology. The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated int he insane society - and he may suffer so much from the incapacity to communicate that it is he who may become psychotic." Erich Fromm

"When in group narcissism, the object is not the individual but he group to which he belongs... The assertion that "my country" (or nation, or religion) is the most wonderful, the most cultural, the most powerful, the most peace-loving, etc. does not sound crazy at all; on the contrary, it sounds like an experssion of patriotism, faith and loyalty." Erich Fromm

"The larger a society or confederacy, the greater the amalgamation of collective factors - which is typical of every large organization - the more aggraveted the moral and spiritual degeneration of the individual" Carl Gustav Jung